Christmas Trip!

I just got home, after two weeks of being away, visiting with family and friends in California for the Christmas holiday. My niece Dorothy, who recently moved to Colorado, shared the drive. We covered over 2600 miles in 40 hours of driving.

It was really nice, to have Dorothy along. Not only did she do some of the driving, but she was a great conversationalist, and it was fun sharing meals with her, too. She loves to make quirky faces in pictures. I got used to that after awhile... We stopped for breakfast at "Marion's of the Rockies" in Idaho Springs on the way out, and completely lost track of time (and two hours on the road!) while chatting, before, during, and after the meal.

Mandy was a great little traveling dog. She spent most of the time sleeping quietly in the back seat of the car. She dutifully ventured out to do her business, every time we stopped for gas or at a rest area. She was also a great little roommate, cuddling with me under her little fleece blanket on the bed, in the hotel rooms, at my sister Mikele's, and when we stayed with our friends Ken and Freddie. She got along great with Mikele's dog Molly, and tolerated the cats well enough. What a great little trouper.

Dorothy was very happy to see her chickens again, and it seems that they were also ecstatic to see her. They were all over her in an instant, climbing up on her shoulders when she invited them, and tapping at her ears in an endearing way. She walked around the chicken coop, saying hello to each and every one of them in turn. During the time we were there, Mikele said they all started laying more eggs than ever before. One of them, who hadn't been laying at all since Dorothy left a few months ago, started laying again, producing an egg every day, and sometimes two. Happy, happy, happy!

My sister had to work right up until Christmas, so we descended on her, and whisked her away for lunch each day. She and her coworkers in Cal Poly's Administration building won the informal Christmas office decoration contest, with their suspended ornaments and little white lights around the ceiling.

Mikele's husband Bob and I played frisbee golf twice at the 18-hole Atascadero disc golf course. The first day we played, we got rained out before we finished playing around. The next time we played, the rain came back, and tried again to shoo us away, but we stuck with it, and finished all 18 holes. I really enjoyed that! It's too snowy to play in Colorado these days. I think the dogs really liked adventuring around the course with us, too.

I drove over to Los Osos one afternoon, to visit with my friend Sher. We attended the same junior high and high schools, but we didn't really know each other, until we became fast friends, after she contacted me, while coordinating attendance for our 30th high school reunion, quite a few years ago, now. She has two different dogs since the last time I saw her, and Mandy did her usual "carving out her space" thing, while we were visiting.

I invited Sher out to dinner, and we decided to ask my sister and her family to join us in Morro Bay. We had a delicious seafood dinner at "Off the Hook Seafood Grill & Sushi", and really enjoyed the food, the company, the view of Morro Rock, the bay, and the sunset. What fun.

We hiked the Bob Jones trail, from a trailhead near Highway 101, to Avila beach, a nice walk of about six miles. Each time we had lunch at Custom House, a nice seafood restaurant, with outdoor patio seating right along the boardwalk. Very pleasant! Mandy was her usual great self, keeping up with us, and behaving very well, while laying at our feet while we were eating.

We had a delightful Christmas Eve dinner, hosted by my nephew Brighton and his girlfriend Marissa, at their pleasant partly below-ground rental space they call "the hobbit hole." Marissa, who works with her mom Jodi at the "Bloom and Grow" flower shop, sings opera professionally, and teaches yoga classes, wasn't feeling well, but it was hard to know it, because she did an incredible job, serving all of us a delicious feast, with a delightful atmosphere.

I wasn't really ready with Christmas presents for everybody, but at the last minute, Bob, Dorothy, and I made a trek to San Luis Obispo, and I had so much fun, walking around my old college town, visiting the stores. I really liked how much bigger all the trees have gotten, since I was walking around SLO with my girlfriend, and stopping into all the cute little women's clothes stores, so many years ago.

Everyone said it wouldn't matter, but I think I was channeling Kristan, because I suddenly starting having some ideas about things to get for people. I felt so much better, having a little something under the tree for everyone on Christmas Day.

We saw the new Stars Wars Episode VII movie! It was fun! I should thank everyone who saw it before we did, but were nice enough to not spoil anything. Oops. I accidentally cut Marissa out of this selfie, but she was there!

On our way back home, we stopped in Lincoln, CA for a short, but very pleasant, visit with my friends Ken and Freddie, who used to live just down the street from us for ten years, but moved away in 2014. They were the best friends anyone could ask for, going for walks on a moment's notice, helping Kristan get to medical appointments, and sharing many meals and holidays with us, over the years. We got the royal tour of their new house and yard in Lincoln, went for walks in the open spaces nearby, and drove around looking at the Christmas lights in the nearby neighborhoods.

It was COLD the last morning of our trip -- MINUS 19 degrees (51 below freezing!), when we woke up at the Little America in Wyoming. There was a low lying fog in the area, but it didn't cause us any problems. The car barely cranked over, and it did start thank goodness, but now I'm wondering if the battery is going bad again, less than a year after being replaced. The lighted trees around the hotel looked beautiful in the bone chilling cold, as I was filling the car with gas before we headed East across Wyoming that morning.

It was nice to come home to a pretty sunset. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the refrigerator had failed while I was gone, and it must've been awhile ago, because all the food in both compartments was warm and dried out. With my friend Jennefer's help, we were able to find a company that agreed to come out and repair the refrigerator today, but then they discovered they had the wrong type of compressor, and will have to come back Saturday to finish the job. Before they arrived, we filled two entire large trash cans with spoiled food. It was very sad to be throwing away what used to be good food, but it was also an emotional experience for me, as a lot of the food items were special things that Kristan was fond of, and I had been keeping, with the idea that I'd figure out a way to make use them.

While the repairmen were attempting to fix the refrigerator, Jennefer and I watched the original Star Wars movie that I had bought while we were in California. I learned some time ago, that she had never seen any of the Star Wars movies. I tried to show her episode IV on videotape last summer, but that was when I discovered my VCR wasn't working any more, so I finally bought the entire series on BluRay, when I was visiting with my sister and her family. I think she enjoyed it!

After the movie, and the repairmen had left, promising to return on Saturday, Jennefer and I went out for a quiet dinner at Merle's in downtown Littleton. We took a New Year's Eve selfie on Main Street outside the restaurant, hoping the pretty lights would look a little festive.

I'm so glad to be home...